A/N: Part seventeen of the Pandora Arc! (And the last part of this arc. Yatta!)
Warnings: Shooting(s) and profanities (that I will not translate)
Acknowledgments: Cai-chan!
Other (possibly irrelevant): From the chapter title, I'm sure you all know what's going on here… NOTE (PLEASE READ): This chapter has yet to be BETAed; however, since it has been two months since my last update, I wanted to add this chapter to at least give you all something. I will update it with a BETAed version but for now, it remains unBETAed...
Review Reply(s)
lion: thank you very much for reading~! I'm glad you like my story. It's always nice to have that person that just loves to fool around. If Ran ever felt jealous, she certainly didn't show it. And you're welcome~!
Today's quote is: *Iocus stares at scarf* "Is this a waffle?"—Iocus
Double-M and KID vs. Conan: Gem of Immortality
Beika, Japan
Mouri Detective Agency
December 3, 4:03 PM
"'Immortality is a hefty bargain, don't you think? We will remove immortality once and for all. Expect us on the first weekend day of the month at one before the second. KID and Mage…' Is what it says," Kasuma said as she set the note on the desk of the agency.
"'Immortality…' What do they mean by that?" Conan murmured, cupping his chin with a hand.
"Beats me," Kasuma shrugged, tossing her book bag on the couch of the agency.
"Well, 'immortality' in Japanese is 'fushi,'" Conan mused. "Could that be what they're looking for?"
Kasuma shrugged, "It wouldn't hurt to try… Look around for a jewel with 'fushi' in its name? Or, if not Japanese, maybe other languages?"
"Do you have to work today?" Conan asked.
Kasuma shook her head, "Kaemon-san forced me to take at least a day off. But this works out perfectly. I'm gonna start putting up my parents' old Christmas decorations and start wrapping some presents I got a while ago."
"You celebrate Christmas? Well… I guess I should have expected that, all the places you've stayed in celebrate it," Conan mumbled as he grabbed the heist note and began copying it into his Shonen Tantei notebook.
"Of course," Kasuma replied. "It's my favorite holiday. On Christmas, we should get everyone together to celebrate. Ne?"
"Ah," Conan looked up in time to see Kasuma picking up her book bag, "Un."
"See you later, Conan-kun," Kasuma said, opening the door of the office and walking down the stairs. The female detective flipped open her book bag and dug around for a small velvet box, which she pulled out and examined, never opening it. 'I'm surprised you never noticed this, Shinichi-kun. And I hid it in second floor kitchen. Or maybe you just let Ran-san dominate that area and, therefore, that's why you never found it.' She palmed the box and, slipping her arm through the book bag's handle, extracted her keychain and unlocked the gate to her home. She looked to her left at the Santa Claus decoration. She sighed, "I need to fix that up, don't I?" Kasuma used her key once more and opened the main door, shutting and locking it before toeing off her shoes and walking through the foyer. "At least Ai-chan and the Shonen Tantei are over at Agasa-hakase's house… That gives me time to work."
Tokyo, Japan
Unknown
December 3, 4:41 PM
Vermouth watched as Kasuma tossed her burden on the couch in the library. Briefly, she walked out of viewing range of the small camera but when she came back, the teen was carrying a large blue bin to an empty wall in the library. Vermouth let a small smile slip through—no one was there to see it anyway—as she watched Kasuma lift an old, long, brown cardboard box, opening it up with ease. 'Tick, tock, tick, tock… What will you do as the time draws near, my dear?' As Kasuma was setting up the spine of a fake green tree, her head jerked in the direction of the library entrance. Hakuba Saguru, a person Vermouth had only seen at a distance and mainly when he was a young child, walked into the spacious room, engaging in an unheard conversation with the house's current owner. "So you're still in the area?" Vermouth murmured as she eased a cigarette out of its carton, lighting it after placing it between her lips. Holding it between her fingers lightly, she blew out a puff of smoke, moving her gaze to an article about aforementioned British detective. 'Chief Police Hakuba's son has made quite a name for himself, haven't you?' Vermouth returned her gaze to the hidden camera feed, currently displaying the two childhood friends as they slid fake tree branches into the spine. "So close, my dear, so close." Vermouth lowered the laptop screen and stood, walking towards the veranda of the building she was residing.
Beika, Japan
Kazuki Residence
December 3, 5:02 PM
"Was there any reason as to why you dropped by here?" Kasuma asked her childhood friend as she grabbed another bunch of branches.
"Other than discussing the heist note and checking up on your condition? None," Hakuba responded, digging through the cardboard for more pieces of the tree.
"Hmm… What about the heist note?"
"I figured out that it'll occur on the fifth of this month either one minute before midnight or one hour before midnight," Hakuba explained, affixing the top of the tree to the spine.
"So the 'immortality' part is still the hardest?" Kasuma mumbled. "Conan-kun was confused by that as well when I dropped by the agency after school. Before I left, he was beginning to search for jewels with 'immortality' in it."
"That's what I wanted to ask you about," Hakuba said, accepting a box of ornaments and opening said box.
"…What?" Kasuma stopped rummaging through the blue bin in front of her to look up at Hakuba.
"There's a jewel that just surfaced," Hakuba began as he began hanging the ornaments on random branches of the tree. "We know nothing about it except for its name and the type of jewel it is."
"Which is…?" Kasuma prompted, opening another box of ornaments and arranging them around the tree.
"It's called 'Amaraniya' and it's a Padparadscha," Hakuba responded, setting the now empty box off to the side and grabbing a new one.
"A Padparadscha? That's rare," Kasuma mused. "So what about this jewel? You wanted to ask me something about it?"
"Yeah. Do you know the language of origin of the name Amaraniya?… is what I wanted to ask."
Kasuma frowned as she repeatedly said the jewel's name over and over in her head. After a while, she shook her head, "I can't think of anything… but it's probably in one of my dictionaries."
Hakuba set the box of ornaments down on the ground and walked over to the section in Kasuma's library with world languages. "Can you give me a list of languages you know? And I mean, you know them pretty well."
Kasuma continued hanging ornaments on the tree as she listed off, "Japanese, English, German, Italian, Korean, Arabic, any of the Filipino languages, Spanish, French, Latin, Russian, Greek… I believe that's about it."
"Hmm… that still leaves a ton of other languages… that doesn't narrow it down much."
"Are there any other possible targets?" Kasuma asked as she paused in her decorating and joined Hakuba by the section of language dictionaries. She pulled a random one off the shelf.
"Nothing that matches their criteria," Hakuba sighed. "Most of them are far too small to pass as KID or Mage targets." Hakuba grabbed another random dictionary off the shelf and scanned through the 'a' section.
Kasuma didn't respond, instead returning the first dictionary and grabbing another one. This pattern continued for some time until… "Hey, I found it!" Kasuma responded, fingering the desired entry. "'Amaraniya'… it means 'immortal.'"
"What language is that?" Hakuba asked, returning the book in his hand to the shelf.
Kasuma looked at the front cover. "Sanskrit… Now that I think of it… isn't 'padparadscha' derived from 'padmaraga'? Isn't that Sanskrit too?" Kasuma flipped to the 'p' section and scanned the pages for the word in question. "Yeah… 'padmaraga' means 'lotus blossom' or 'lotus-hued' in Sanskrit. Now it makes sense to use Sanskrit… seeing as how the gem type has a name in Sanskrit as well."
"Then I think we found our target," Hakuba murmured, returning to the Christmas tree, Kasuma following closely behind. A clear, plastic bag caught his eyes, and the British detective carefully pulled it out of the blue bin. He smiled, "I remember these… your parents would never let you near these for fear of you breaking them." Hakuba then realized what he just said and jerked his eyes behind him, worried that his comment would affect Kasuma negatively.
Kasuma gave a small smile in return. "Yeah… but I was young at that time… I think I'm old enough to handle those now." Kasuma tugged on the zipper and pulled out a glass angel.
"Kasuma…neechan?" A voice called into the house. "Is there someone else here?"
"In the library!" Kasuma yelled back, hanging the angel and grabbing more glass ornaments to place on the tree. The library doors opened with a soft click and Haibara entered first, followed by Genta, Mitsuhiko, Ayumi, and finally Conan. "Ai-chan… I wasn't expecting you back until much later… And I see you found Conan-kun and pulled him away from the heist note."
Meanwhile, the Shonen Tantei, minus Conan and Haibara had run up to Kasuma and Hakuba, admiring the tree in the room with a resounding, "Sugoi!"
"You celebrate Christmas, Kasuma-oneesan?" Ayumi asked.
"Always have, always will," Kasuma answered. "I've even figured out some presents for all of the Shonen Tantei-dan."
"Really?"
"Even Haibara-san and Conan-kun?" Mitsuhiko cut in.
"Of course. They're part of the Shonen Tantei, aren't they?" Kasuma replied with a smile. "You know what… do you guys wanna help me put these ornaments on the tree?" The three kids in front of the tree answered with a happy 'Yeah!' and the each took the boxes Kasuma handed them. After telling the kids how to organize the ornaments around the tree so duplicates weren't too close to each other, Kasuma knelt down in front of Conan and Haibara. "Make sure they don't hang up the ornaments in the clear bag… those are glass. And you two are the only ones allowed on the ladder for the higher branches. Okay?" Haibara and Conan nodded in understanding and Kasuma, nodding to herself, grabbed Hakuba's arm and a big plastic bag next to him and pulled him outside.
Tokyo, Japan
Edo-Tokyo Museum
December 5, 10:21 PM
"They'll be rabid tonight," Mage murmured, looking down from the roof at the line of police cars surrounding the museum.
"Of course," KID shrugged. "This may very well be our last heist."
"And we have to make sure they don't follow us up. They can't come into the line of fire." Mage stepped away from the rooftop edge and slipped on a brown wig cap, accepting the long, dark brown wig KID extended towards her.
"That means a bunch of traps," KID whispered, brows drawn in a frown. Mage pulled the wig over her wig cap, adjusting the bangs to sweep over the left side. She shrugged off the black jacket and pulled a dark red one over her black tank top, shedding the baggy sweatpants to reveal light skinny jeans. She slipped off her blue sneakers and replaced them with a pair of tall, brown boots.
"Kazuki Kasuma is the only one who can get close enough to them," Mage mumbled, opening a mirror and applying makeup to change her face to that of the female detective. "Before I run into them, I'll walk around and set tons of traps. Then I'll sneak a tracker onto Nakamori-keibu, Tantei-kun, and Holmes—shit!" Mage closed the mirror with a huff and slipped it into a pocket of her jacket. "I'll fix everything else in the bathroom. Kaitou, I put the Kevlar in the storage closet on the top floor. Be sure to pick it up before you reach the rooftop… Snake won't give a rat's ass about injuring us to get this jewel… and neither would Croc… if he was here." Mage opened the door leading to the lower floors of the museum as KID disappeared behind the door of a rooftop storage room, both preparing for the night's heist.
Tokyo, Japan
Edo-Tokyo Museum
December 5, 10:46 PM
"Kasuma…?" Hakuba spotted a familiar red jacket and promptly left the special exhibition room to catch up to the figure. "Kasuma!" Kasuma turned around.
"Oh, hey Hakuba," Kasuma greeted with a smile.
"What are you doing here?"
"I was curious about what Keibu-san was going to do security-wise," Kasuma said with a shrug, following Hakuba back into the special exhibition. "So I decided to look around."
"Are you going to hang around?" Hakuba asked, taking up his former position against the wall, Conan staring up at Kasuma curiously.
Kasuma shook her head, "I need to finalize the timings for all the lights and find my mother's tree topper… so I'll be heading home soon."
"I see," Hakuba murmured.
"Where is the Task Force head, anyway?" Kasuma asked, scanning the exhibition room.
"Nakamori-keibu's on one of the higher floors, setting up officers around the halls up there," Conan answered brightly, coming around to stand in front of Kasuma.
"Hmm." Kasuma read the time on her watch. "Well then, I should probably go… Ai-chan's probably wondering where I went." Kasuma zipped up her jacket and pulled out a set of keys. "I'll see you guys later." Kasuma waved and departed the museum.
"…She hasn't started her eating pattern," Hakuba murmured, watching the doors swing closed.
"Nani? Hakuba-niichan…?"
"She hasn't lost any weight yet… so she hasn't changed her eating pattern," Hakuba reiterated.
''Lost any weight'… What weight is there for her to lose? Kasuma-chan's already pretty thin as it is,' Conan thought with a frown directed at the British detective. 'What the hell is he on about?'
Elsewhere in the museum, KID was laying flat on his stomach, peering through the slits of a ventilation grate. Below him was the room in which Amaraniya was being held, guards surrounding the jewel and officers prowling the premises. A soft crackle surfaced from the earpiece in his left ear. "Mage?" he whispered.
"Yeah, it's me," Mage's neutralized voice answered. "I really need to thank Tantei-chan for usually wearing such little makeup… makes it easier to change out. Anyway, where are you?"
"In the vents above the exhibition room," KID answered quietly. "Surveying the scene."
"Good. I've already bugged Keibu and the Tanteis… all that's left is to grab the gem and pray the law enforcement falls into the traps we've set."
"Are you meeting me in the vents? Or are you taking a different route?" KID asked, shifting his position in the vent carefully, making sure he didn't make any unnecessary noise.
"Well, the restroom I'm in currently doesn't have a vent large enough for me to squeeze through but I have a copy of the blueprints on me so I'll figure something out," Mage answered, her actions sending a soft ruffling through KID's earpiece.
"Well be quick," KID murmured. "It's almost Showtime."
"Yeah I know," Mage answered. "Let's see… I should be there in about…" Mage paused and from the soft pants, KID could tell she was running while attempting to check for the time. "Three minutes," came the final reply. "Less if there aren't any officers in the vicinity."
KID peered through the gaps in the vent grate again before pressing the earpiece closer to his ear. "If I were to activate the smoke bombs now, would you be able to get into the exhibition room in time?"
"Do it," Mage replied tersely. "I'll be in there. Activate them."
"Yosh~!" KID grinned, pulling out a remote control and pressing a certain button. Down below, smoke seeped into the room and KID made use of the confusion to slide the grate away and fall into the room, landing lightly on Amaraniya's case. Seconds after he landed, KID could dimly see Mage's figure as she ran up to the jewel case and immediately pulled out her set of lock picks. However, as the smoke cleared, she didn't begin putting them to use. Lock picks skillfully hidden up her suit sleeve, Mage grinned up at KID before turning her half-concealed gaze to Nakamori.
"Kisama!" said Inspector hissed. "How'd you get past all the guards!"
"Now, now, Keibu~!" KID crooned. "You know we can't reveal that~! How about we chat? Hmm?" Taking that as the cue, Mage grinned and slipped her lock picks out again, working on disabling the single security apparatus around Amaraniya, deep blue wig hiding the rest of her features.
"Stop him!" Nakamori yelled, pointing at Mage.
"Tsk." KID pulled out his card gun and extended it at arm's length, rotating on the jewel case as he shot several playing cards at the advancing officers, startling them into stopping. "Come now, what happened to my chat suggestion?" KID asked innocently with a tilt of his head.
"There's nothing to chat about," Conan replied, taking a step forward, which he immediately regretted when KID responded by shooting a card centimeters from his feet.
"That's not the right attitude," KID admonished. "There are plenty of things to talk about! How about school? Or those murder cases everyone seems to run into? Or the upcoming holidays?" KID sighed, shaking his head. "Why is everyone so unsociable at heists?" Faintly, KID heard a light knocking below him and he took this time to throw a few smoke bombs and send himself up in the air to give Mage time to open the case and slip Amaraniya out. While in the air, KID used his card gun once again, only this time, a grappling hook shooting out and gripping to the edge of the open ventilation grate. He quickly and silently slid away from the opening, barely catching the activation of more smoke bombs, which allowed Mage to pull herself up into the vent. She quietly replaced the grate then nodded to KID who, returning the action, slid onto his stomach and began moving through the vent, Mage following silently behind. They could hear the now faint orders from Nakamori to search for the escaped thieves.
Conan hissed as he narrowly missed getting caught up in yet another trap set by the two phantom thieves. Unfortunately, other officers weren't so lucky. 'That's the fifth one I've seen,' he thought as he backed up a few paces to avoid getting entangled in the net that had just snapped closed. Miraculously, Hakuba had managed to run past the trap without setting off the net so he was standing on the opposite side of the net, looking behind him at said trap with a frown.
"They're being much more persistent with the heist tonight," Hakuba murmured, tugging on the netting in order to find some weak point that would cause it to unravel. "Even to go as far as shooting at us."
"Hakuba-niichan, let's go outside!" Conan suggested brightly. "I doubt KID and Mage set any traps out there." Hakuba nodded, agreeing and bypassed the trap, running towards the museum entrance behind Conan. With the sheer number of traps lying around, Conan and Hakuba didn't make it safely outside until fifteen minutes had passed. Finally making it outside, they noticed Nakamori already outside, using his radio to check the status of his officers inside.
"Most of the officers are caught up in KID and Mage's traps," Hakuba informed the Inspector. "It'll take a while to get them out with the way the traps are functioned."
Nakamori cursed in response before barking out an order to the officers who had made it safely outside. That's when the first gunshot was heard.
KID kicked the grate open and crawled out, immediately feeling the chill December wind biting through his suit. Mage exited soon after and both thieves froze when the click of a gun brought itself to light. Poker Face slamming over their features, both thieves turned to face the perpetrator. KID smirked. "Long time, no see… Snake."
"Drop the pleasantries," Snake hissed. "Give me the jewel."
"And what makes you think we have it?" Mage returned, sticking her gloved hands into her pant pockets.
"There's no way you'd leave that jewel unprotected… just waiting for my men to retrieve it," Snake spat out. "Now hand it over!"
'That's exactly what we want you to think,' Mage thought.
"Where exactly are these goons of yours?" KID asked then. "They bail on you already? We have yet to start!"
"Think again." At Snake's statement, a dozen or so men clad in black stepped out from the shadows, guns at the ready and poised to strike.
Snow was beginning to fall when that first gunshot rang out. Those outside the museum instantly began searching for the origin, growing more wary when one, then two, and three more gunshots made themselves known. "Kusou! What the hell is going on?" Nakamori exclaimed.
With absolutely no hesitation, Mage pulled out from underneath her white suit blazer a sleek, black Walther PPK, successively firing four shots at the men in black, knocking the guns out of their hands. KID, getting over his initial—and hidden—shock, dove behind a metal generator, pulling out his card gun as he did so. Mage fired the remaining five bullets left in her gun then dove in the opposite direction, releasing the magazine as she did. She involuntarily let out a cry when Snake—who had pulled out a second gun—fired at her. Growling quietly, KID threw out several smoke bombs, hoping to assist his partner in crime. Snake hissed. "You won't get away with this you bastards!"
'Try us,' Mage thought, sliding in a second magazine and peeking around the generator.
Hakuba and Conan had trouble in trying to stop Nakamori from reentering the museum, the surrounding officers too busy with tracing the gunshot origin to assist. With the inspector too busy cursing—quite loudly, at that—he couldn't hear what the two young detectives were trying to warn him about. Finally, a loud cry caught his attention and Nakamori ceased movement, looking up at the overhang where the sound originated from. 'The roof?' Conan ran out from under the overhang and attempted to search the roof, to no avail.
Several more gunshots rang out and a familiar pink smoke cloud spread over the building. "Soko ka?" Nakamori growled. He pulled a radio up to his mouth, "Send helicopters to Edo-Toyko Museum! And be extremely careful! Someone opened fire here!"
"You okay, Aibou?" KID's voice registered quietly from Mage's earpiece. "Did you get shot?"
"Nicked my right arm," Mage answered back. "Bastard." Mage threw another couple smoke bombs, using her recollection of their last positions to shoot at three of the men, knocking their guns out of their hands.
"Keep the smoke going on your end," KID said through the earpiece. He placed a small flare in his card gun and aimed it at the open sky. "I'll fire a flare. Snake and his goons won't stick around much longer if the police have been notified."
"No worries there, Kaitou," Mage reassured. "I just heard Nakamori-keibu send for helicopters over the listening device in his pocket. Just hold up until then."
"That was my plan," KID answered, firing the flare then throwing more smoke bombs out onto the roof.
"Seikou. Dan'yaku no uchi wa," Mage growled, tucking her pistol into her jacket and replacing it with her usual gun. The helicopters arrived faster than the two thieves expected and they both breathed a sigh of relief when they heard retreating footsteps. "Time to retrieve Amaraniya."
By the time the helicopters, Nakamori, and the detectives arrived, all that was left at the scene was a single magazine, at least fourteen bullet shells and a patch of snow stained red.
Beika, Japan
Mouri Detective Agency
December 6, 12:07 AM
Conan collected his school books from off the second floor table and stuffed them into his backpack, one hand holding his cell phone which had an image of the museum rooftop after the heist had ended. The empty magazine sat next to the drops of blood, a thin layer of snow over it. 'Someone got hurt,' Conan thought grimly. A flash from outside caught his attention. Conan looked across the street at the tall building opposite the agency. His eyes widened and he scrambled to the ladder outside the apartment that led to the roof.
"You got hurt," Conan muttered, staring at the blood-stained gauze around Mage's upper right arm as he walked towards the thief.
"Ne, do you know how to destroy a sapphire?" Mage asked Conan, her legs swinging ever so slightly as she sat on the edge of the Agency's roof.
"No." Conan answered.
"Hmm… that's a shame. Neither do I." Mage pulled out the latest heist target from her pocket, gazing at the pink-orange jewel. "KID's looking into it but I hope he finds out soon. The crows are already anxious to get this here gem… that I'm sure of. If their Boss finds out then… the two of us are goners."
"Who are you talking about?"
"A magician never reveals her secret," Mage whispered, setting a finger against her lips.
Ekoda, Japan
Hakuba Residence
December 6, 12:39 AM
Hakuba looked out the window to find a white figure sitting on a tree branch, reclining against the large trunk of the old tree. Slowly, so as not to startle the thief, Hakuba inched over to the window and pulled up the window. The thief's blue eyes flickered over to Hakuba, then moved to focus on the top of the window frame. "I was ready and planning to wait until morning. Hmm, I even got myself comfortable."
Hakuba raised an eyebrow and said, "What are you doing here?"
"I have a favor to ask of you, Tantei-san." Mage sighed and refocused her eyes on Hakuba, "Would you be willing to help a Phantom Thief in one of the biggest takedowns in history?"
Elsewhere
December 5, 3:15 PM
"Are you Eisuke Hondou?"
Final Notes: And that concludes the search for Pandora! Up next, we have the takedown of the 'Men in Black' and the Aftermath! Yay!
I don't believe the translations for 'amaraniya' and 'padparadscha'/'padmaraga' are quite right but I think they're fairly close. *crossesfingers*
Translation
Dan'yaku no uchi wa. (Out of ammunition.)
Coming up next in Double-M and KID vs. Conan: "Or helicopter, or boat, or train… Who knows exactly what I ever say?"
